A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to operations support systems (OSSs), and more particularly to switched service software systems.
B. Description of Related Art
In today's computerized world, companies may use sophisticated software systems to coordinate and manage many aspects of their business. The software systems are often highly customized to the particular needs of the company and can be a significant asset. When two competitive companies within the same business sector merge into one bigger company, reusing existing resources in each company becomes a top priority systems integration task. In particular, it is often desirable to integrate the software systems of the two companies into a single system. Such an integration can be difficult to perform, but once implemented, can provide large potential cost savings and efficiency improvements.
As an example of the above, consider the merger of two telecommunications companies. One of the valuable reusable resources for the newly consolidated company is the software systems from each company. These systematically reusable software systems keep the company business going, supports customer services, and create revenue. For the new merged company, consolidating software systems with the same functionality, such as provisioning systems and inventory systems, can provide significant benefits.
Integrating software systems, although potentially beneficial, also entails risk. The risk is because the software systems may have different data representations, business processes, business rules, and system implementations, as well as different hardware platforms that support these software systems. These factors make efficiently integrating these software systems without introducing errors or faults a difficult proposition.
Thus, there is a need in the art for techniques for integrating information distribution systems that reduce the cost and/or risk involved in such integrations.